


you need a flame before you fizzle out

by summerstorm



Category: Community
Genre: Awesome Ladies Ficathon, Character Study, Comment Fic, Episode Tag, Fix-It, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-26
Updated: 2010-06-26
Packaged: 2017-10-10 07:09:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/97033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/summerstorm/pseuds/summerstorm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Britta spends an entire month after she tells Jeff she loves him — what is <em>wrong with her</em>? — pondering what the hell is wrong with her. She is a grown woman. It's appalling that the possibility that Slater might take Jeff back and veer his attention away from Britta could send her into a fit of competitivity so ridiculous and <em>teenage</em> that it makes her revert to edgy borderline psychotically possessive high school Britta, and what does that spell out for her life? This is what it spells out: trouble. Shame. Stress. Loss of dignity.</p>
            </blockquote>





	you need a flame before you fizzle out

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [this prompt](http://ineffort.livejournal.com/199061.html?thread=4706709#t4706709) at ineffort's Awesome Ladies Ficathon.

Britta spends an entire month after she tells Jeff she loves him — what is _wrong with her_? — pondering what the hell is wrong with her. She is a grown woman. It's appalling that the possibility that Slater might take Jeff back and veer his attention away from Britta could send her into a fit of competitivity so ridiculous and _teenage_ that it makes her revert to edgy borderline psychotically possessive high school Britta, and what does that spell out for her life? This is what it spells out: trouble. Shame. Stress. Loss of dignity.

Besides, why would she not want Slater to be happy? Slater's a perfectly respectable person — aside from the wanting to date Jeff part, and, for the record, that's an insult to Jeff, not a display of jealousy. If nothing else, at least she doesn't put up with his shit. Britta has to give her props for that.

Silently, but still. It would be weird to praise someone for their attitude towards someone you just fought over.

Oh, god, _what is wrong with her_?

By the time classes start up again, she's reached the conclusion that it really, truly, definitely wasn't about him.

The only problem is that now, she has to watch his smug face every time she sits down to _study_, because the entirety of summer break is apparently not enough for him to let go of the Tranny Dance situation like a decent person would.

She can't believe she gave him a chance to _reject_ her. Like his ego needed that boost. Like it _was_ about him.

It was so not about him.

"If that's what you have to tell yourself," Jeff says magnanimously when she points this out, "go ahead. We'll pretend we believe you."

"I don't _need_ you to believe me," Britta says childishly. "It would show an ability to stop watching yourself on the nearest reflective surface that I frankly don't think you possess."

"Is that what you do with your study breaks?"

Britta firmly believes no words convey her disdain as well as simply glaring does.

Jeff, however, isn't swayed. He leans over the table and says, grimacing, "You told me you _loved_ me."

"I would have said _anything_," Britta says, and instantly realizes how not right it came out. Jeff raises an eyebrow. She glares some more.

"If you _say_ you're going to pretend to believe someone," Abed says, "is that pretending to pretend to believe someone? I wonder what kind of expression you could use for that. Something like — " He puts on an exaggerated thoughtful face, which after a few seconds of stillness shifts into a less exaggerated but somehow creepier one. Then, he says, "Or you could keep your face blank."

"Because two negatives make a positive," Troy deducts, looking at Abed for confirmation, "and then you're _not_ pretending to believe someone, and you actually believe them?"

"I think you just let them know you think they're lying," Abed reasons.

"Oh," says Troy.

"I think we all know what's going on here," Jeff says, picking up on the not-really-much-of-a-conversation Britta was trying to have with him.

"Oh, really, Jeff?" Britta says, crossing her arms over the table. "And what is that?"

"You thought the minute you decided to give me what you thought I wanted from you, I'd take you in with open arms, and that wasn't the case, and now you're backtracking because you're embarrassed."

"That's not why I'm embarrassed!" Britta snaps, and Jeff nods as if to imply that was exactly his point. "I'm not embarrassed because you — _it wasn't about you_. I'm embarrassed because I got involved in a stupid pigtail-pulling fight because I wanted to keep having something over everyone. I didn't _care_ what that something was. I wasn't jealous of _you_. I don't care who you date. You can date Slater again for all I care. I don't mind. You could date _Annie_ and I wouldn't — "

She stops because Jeff's eyes widen, and Annie hisses in surprise.

"You're dating _Annie_?" Troy squeals.

Britta turns to Annie, puts on her best, most hypocritical how-could-you-sink-so-low tone, which is, for the record, perfectly justified by her genuine concern for Annie's life, and says, "You're _dating him_?"

And that is how the study group forgets all about the Tranny Dance situation.

It's not as good as having the real cause of her behavior acknowledged, but, if Britta has learned one thing from the whole Jeff imbroglio, that would be to think twice before fighting for attention she'll wish she'd handed over when she had the chance.


End file.
